Democrat Harley Rouda has come fast and hard out of the gates in his challenge of Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Costa Mesa, announcing Tuesday, March 14, that he’d raised $100,000 in less than two weeks after declaring his candidacy.

At the same time, it emerged that Rouda had given $1,000 to Republican John Kasich in last year’s presidential primary and some began questioning the businessman and first-time candidate’s faithfulness to the Democratic Party. Rouda is one of two Democrats in the race, with Laguna Beach real estate broker Boyd Roberts rounding out the field so far.

A review of the Federal Elections Commission site reveals that Rouda also gave at least $9,200 to Republican congressional candidates from 1993 to 2007, and nothing to Democratic candidates during that period.

In a Facebook response, Rouda explained that he was once a Republican but realized that the Democratic Party better reflected his positions. He explained that he gave to Kasich because he and his wife had been friends with the Kasichs for nearly 30 years.

“We gave … because they are personal friends – not because he is someone who I share a political ideology with – and because I wanted to stop Donald Trump and his divisive campaign,” he wrote. “For president, I supported Hillary Clinton.”

When I followed up, Rouda said he grew up in a Republican household but has voted for the Democratic presidential nominee since 2004.

“I am 100% Democratic and strongly for Democratic values,” he said, specifically citing his support of gay marriage, abortion rights and immigration reform that would include a path to citizenship for most of those in the country illegally.

I asked Sue Dvorak of Indivisible OC 48, an anti-Donald Trump group that demonstrates at Rohrabacher’s office weekly, about her colleagues’ reaction to Rouda’s Republican past.

“The impressions fall into three categories,” she said. “Some people think Harley is a Republican in disguise. Others are withholding judgment for now. And some think he’ll be able to appeal strongly to more voters throughout the district because of his background.”

Dvorak noted that her husband is a former Republican.

“For me, personally, I can understand how somebody can change,” she said.

Voter fraud

The county grand jury on Monday, March 13, issued a report entitled “No Voter Fraud Here,” although the document did not address vulnerabilities in the system.

“The Grand Jury found no evidence of widespread or organized voter fraud or vote interference in Orange County election processes in (last year’s) General Election,” the report says.

One vulnerability several readers have expressed concern about is polling place impersonation.

If you know the name and address of a registered voter who has voted before but hasn’t voted in the current election, you can show up at their polling place under their guise and cast a ballot in their name. That’s one argument for requiring photo ID at the polling place.

Grand jury Chairwoman Carrie Carmody noted that there is virtually no evidence of that happening and downplayed the threat.

“How many times could somebody really do that and how much could it change the outcome?” she told me. “All those issues were discussed with the Registrar (of Voters, Neal Kelley).”

Meanwhile, the online news site CALmatters looked in the 948 election-related complaints received by the secretary of state’s office in 2016.

“The office determined that more than half (525) did not merit criminal investigation. Of the remaining complaints, 140 are still being screened, 194 were non-criminal problems referred to local officials and 89 triggered investigations by the Secretary of State,” CALmatters reported.

“Of the 89 investigations the Secretary of State opened in 2016: 56 are allegations of double voting, 16 are allegations of fraudulent voter registration and one is an alleged case of fraudulent voting. The rest allege wrongdoing by candidates, people who circulate petitions and others who work in the elections arena – not by voters themselves.

“Together, the cases the Secretary of State is investigating and those it referred to counties amount to one one-thousandth of one percent (0.001%) of the more than 23 million votes cast in California’s primary and general elections last year.”

The Orange County District Attorney’s Office looked into two complaints: one of somebody campaigning too closely to the polling place and the other of somebody registering to vote who wasn’t eligible.

In the latter case, the individual didn’t speak English well and may not have understood that the canvasser was signing him up to vote, said Senior Deputy District Attorney Ebrahim Baytieh. No charges were brought in either case because “filing of criminal charges was not appropriate or warranted,” said Susan Kang Schroeder, chief of staff for the District Attorney.

Martin Wisckol has been the Orange County Register's politics writer and weekly Buzz columnist since 1998, and now writes about politics for all papers in the Southern California Newspaper Group. He was given the title of politics editor in 2011 to reflect his expanded role in planning political coverage. Wisckol started his career writing about surfing and jazz, but has written predominantly about government and politics since 1985. He has held reporting positions in his hometown of San Diego, as well as in Detroit, Jacksonville and Miami. Along the way, he has put in extended stints in Japan, South America and Switzerland. His work has been honored by the Society of Professional Journalists, the National Headliner Awards, the California Newspaper Publishers Association and the Florida Press Club, among others. He continues lifelong pursuits of surfing, traveling and playing guitar.

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